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The companion volume to "Simple Stunning Weddings, this beautifully designed binder is the practical application of Karen Bussen's design and planning theories. Full of useful information, tips, and trade secrets, the Organizer leads couples through the planning process with minimal pain and suffering. Applying her trademark simple stunning technique to any taste, place, and budget, Bussen provides practical charts, worksheets, and fill-in pages, arranged in decision-making sequence, right through to the honeymoon and thank-you notes. The three-ring binder has plenty of room for additional pages and enormous guest lists. Six storage pockets provide space for receipts, business cards, sample menus, and fabric swatches.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

KAREN BUSSEN has planned weddings to complement a wide varieKAREN BUSSEN has planned weddings to complement a wide variety of locations, budgets, and tastes, from celebrity-filled ty of locations, budgets, and tastes, from celebrity-filled events to casual, intimate affairs. She has been featured onevents to casual, intimate affairs. She has been featured on "Inside Edition" and other national and local television pr "Inside Edition" and other national and local television programs, and is the cooking and entertaining expert on the "Dograms, and is the cooking and entertaining expert on the "Do-It-Yourself Network" series "Home Made Easy". Bussen liveso-It-Yourself Network" series "Home Made Easy". Bussen lives in New York City. in New York City.

Ellen Silverman's photographs appear regularloy in magazines such as Eating Well and Food & Wine, and she has photographed numerous cookbooks and cookbook covers. She maintains a studio in New York.

Top customer reviews

Before purchasing this planner, I already knew that there will be a new version coming out Jan, 2011. It would be too late for me to buy it so I bought this old version anyway. It is overall very versatile and organized. You can actually rearrange the pages and categories around to serve personal needs. The material for this book is very good. And I find its "odd" size actually desirable.Here are some things that can be improved.1. There should be more pages for wedding accommodations, as well as Music/song choices.2. There is no business card slots.3. There are weekly to-do lists but there is no calendar for the recent years or next year.4. There can be more categories and tags. You will find in this book music, food, fashion, etc all together under "Design Workshop" category.5. There is a "Bride Attire Checklist" page but there is no groom's one...

Most of these problems can be solved in one way: There are about 10+ blank note pages at the end of the planner. I have taken them out and inserted them into places I need more space. I even rearranged the categories like I want it to be.

I have researched a lot of planners in stores and the internet. I personally don't like those chunky, heavy, and loosely glued planners. The moment i weight them I put them down. Imagine you have to visit so many different places to talk to vendors and have an extra canvas or plastic bag, just for a big planner book!

I bought this soon after getting engaged and found it very helpful- and pretty! The tips and reminders in each section were very helpful and brought up points I never would have thought about (ie- when to obtain the marriage license). There is plenty of design space and pockets so you can add your own magazine ads, articles, photos, business cards, etc. A very good and affordable wedding organzier.

I bought my copy at B&N for $19.95, I'm very sorry I didn't check Amazon.com first and save $6!

I am pretty picky about design as I am a professional graphic designer. The lilac, flowery planners with poor typography turned me off. There were many such organizers to choose from at B&N but this one caught my eye because of its bright colors and modern, clean design on the glossy, belly-band style dust jacket. I flipped through the pages and just LOVED the smooth, heavy-weight paper- perfect for ballpoint pen without it showing up on the other side of the page. The design inside is impeccable, and the photography is so gorgeous and inspiring that I have actually chosen pink and orange as my wedding colors as a result!

While this is a lovely book, it does have some faults, but not enough that I wouldn't recommend this book.

PROS:

1. VERY sturdy, heavy-duty cover. Perfect for support while taking notes on the go.

2. Gorgeous design.

3. Good tips for anyone regardless of their stage in the planning. I especially like their notes and surveys on finding your own personal wedding style. I work in the wedding industry myself and thought that I wouldn't find as much use for a planner, but this brought up a LOT of small details I might have overlooked until the last minute.

4. Heavy-duty clear pockets, one for each section. Perfect for holding samples and other such things.

5. Color coded tabs. This really appeals to me, it helps tremendously in the organizational process and it is often overlooked by most people.

6. A big section for inspiration, including gridded paper, which I use for sketching our wedding logo and graphics. Nice touch.

CONS:

1. Odd size. This is the biggest fault. The binder itself is square- aprox. 9"x9". Thus, the paper inside is an odd size as well. It is 8.5" high by 7.80" or something similar long. What an ODD size. Why not square inside? Anyway, its annoying. You can't store letter-sized papers (contracts, etc) without folding them, which adds bulk to the binder, and also I hate folding stuff like that, I would much prefer to add them to the binder so that I can flip back and forth to them for reference. Now I'm forced to take them from the pockets, and if there are multiple papers of different sizes in there, I may have to take them all out or risk spilling them on the floor. Also, the holes are an odd distance apart as well, which means you can't use a standard hole punch. This is a problem because...(on to point 2)

2. The planner should have more tabs and be better organized, perhaps by timeline or a tab for each vendor contract or something similar. The wedding transportation, gift list tracker, and wedding accommodations are hidden behind the many pages of the guestlist section. The guestlist is a waste of space as the best thing you can do for yourself is to make an Excel spread sheet or at least keep the guestlist typed in Word or some equivalent. I am going to add tabs for each specific vendor but it will require a lot of work to cut the paper down specifically to size.

3. Its a bit outdated (well, it IS five years old at this point) and sometimes inaccurate. Deejay is not a word. DJ is the abbreviation of Disc Jockey. Asking the photographer for negatives is no longer relevant as most professionals have switched to digital. Also, why suggest asking what type of camera they use? Are you going to research the differences between DSLRs? Seeing the quality of their work and asking about their experience is more important than the brand of camera they use. My best advice to my fellow brides is to do their research for these things on the internet, and be sure to work with experienced, established companies who are up-to-date on the latest technology.

4. It would have been nice for the binder to come with an elastic closure, like the ones you see on moleskine notebooks.

Anyway, despite my few nitpicks it is an excellent book, a worthy investment for $20. A few homemade adjustments and its perfect!

I bought this pretty early on when I was not sure WHAT I would or wouldn't be needing. My first wedding, no wedding planner hired and I ending up liking this. It has thick clear plastic pockets you can put samples of everything in (linens, dress colors, biz cards) and that comes in handy. Helps with some questions you should ask vendors if you don't know the basics (which I did not - so this and the internet)... and give you extra papers for words/ideas.... just half way through planning now and I am still using it. Its a good way to keep ideas, papers, samples, EVERYTHING kept together in a very pretty binder. (Plus if you get stressed and you dont want to think about it for a few days it hides away nicely too...)

This organizer is wonderful for tracking all your wedding plans. It's a little light on timeframes for getting things done, but that stuff is online and easy to find. I like to have something tangible and useful to look at and this binder does that. It also gives you all the questions you need to ask of your potential vendors and facilities (never would have thought about adjustible lighting). The only drawback--sometimes I can't find the sections I need when I'm looking for them...but that just takes some getting used to I suppose.

This book is well-produced and has many helpful lists, folders, images and ideas. I used it as a scrapbook for ideas and inspirations throughout my 6-month wedding planning. Clear pockets help keep ideas and swatches organized. The best part is that when you come to a photographer, baker, florist or any other vendor with this smart-looking notebook/organizer, they know you mean business. Much easier to negotiate when you look well-prepared and professional. I still love flipping through and reminiscing.

I looked thorugh every bookstore and website for the perfect wedding planner. If you want a "How-to" this may not be the planner for you, but if you want lots of room to doodle, take notes, good worksheets and pockets, this is perfect. I also like the 3-ring design, I have added a lot of pages so far, any three hole punch will adjust to fit this binder. All I could have asked for!